Jewish Law and Justice

Catalog description

This course will center on nine Talmudic units, each dealing with a discrete topic bearing on perennial questions of justice, such as retributive punishment, forgiveness and mercy, human dignity, fair wages for labor, religious pluralism, etc. The title of the course is taken from the book by the contemporary French philosopher, Emanuel Levinas. We will, from time to time, compare his Talmudic readings with our own and also investigate the larger turn to law (halakha) in modern Jewish philosophy. We will focus on the unique character of Talmudic legal thought and on the relationship of law and narrative in the Hebrew Bible and in the Talmud (halakha and aggada). From time to time, we will study the texts in pairs during class, replicating the way these texts were studied in the traditional study halls. All sources will be available both in the original and in English. No prior background is required.